One of my acquisitions from the last show was this free but broken G3 Stock Horse. Since I already had the dremel out, I fixed up his leg so he at least could stand on the shelf and await his customization. I took pictures so I could do a quick little tutorial on how to fix a broken leg.
Step One
Use a dremel to make a hole in both pieces of the leg. This break is at the pastern, so I drill up into the cannon bone and down into the hoof. Go as deep as you can without puncturing the outside of the plastic. This is easiest using a small dremel drill bit, but you can use a carbide scraper to dig a hole into each piece if you don’t have a dremel on hand.
Step Two
Insert a wire into one of the holes as deeply as possible. Use as thick a wire as will fit. Secure the wire in the hole using super glue and just a touch of baking soda. The glue-and-baking-soda resin should only fill the hole and not spill out. If it overflows the hole you’ll need to sand it back down, otherwise the leg will end up longer than it was originally.
Step Three
Trim the wire so that when you put the two pieces together they are snug and no wire is visible, as seen below:
Now you see it…
Now you don’t!
Step Four
Using just a touch of super or tacky glue, secure the exposed wire in the other side of the break. Make sure the sides are snug and that the hoof is positioned correctly. Stand the horse up to double check stability.
Voila! My horse has four legs again. He’ll still need some epoxy and/or modeling paste to smooth over the break, but it’s secure.
Shoestring Stable 